After attending the ASIDIC conference last month, I had a whole new insight into the world of premium content providers. Elisabeth Osmeloski and I wrote a piece for Search Engine Watch dealing with Free versus fee models on the web. It’s really fascinating how revenue models are shifting for many content providers. Part II of the article will be along shortly.
Andy Beal has developed probably the most brilliant contest in the world of SEO in quite some time. If you are fairly new to SEO - it is a great opportunity to get some significant exposure and maybe even win $5,000. There are some very nice submissions so far, if you haven’t checked it out yet. For those looking to hire SEO’s - these guys are probably the hungriest. Get them before Rand does.
Why are you always retrofitting and re-optimizing? Your CEO (or other decision maker) didn’t ask the right questions. You need to know how to build and promote a website from the ground up to be successful. Picture your perfect web presence. Visualize web 2.0 Zen. Now work backwards and apply these principles to your website among various time, budget, legacy technology, and personal ego obstacles of varying degrees in the way of your quest towards website enlightement. Welcome to the world of SEO.
There’s a big difference between an “ideal website” built in a vacuum with an unlimited budget and no competition versus retrofitting, optimizing, and improving and existing website. These are the questions your CEO forgot to ask. Make sure they get asked. If you understand the IDEAL website and the value of each component that would go into it - you can understand how to balance financial and time budgets for the highest ROI on a project, and overcome the normal hurdles that every company faces. These are the top questions your CEO forgot to ask.
1. Do we have a brandable domain?
I have always underestimated the power of a brandable domain. No longer. Once you reach critical mass - branding puts you over the top. Save a spot in your users mind, and traditional advertising might still work for you. As the saying goes, it’s much cheaper to keep a customer (or user) than to attract a new one. It’s easy to lose users with .net’s, dashed domains, and typos if it’s their first or second time to your site.
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2. Who should we host with that will be reliable?
There’s nearly nothing worst than doing a great job marketing - seeing the website get hammered with traffic, and feeling your stomach sink as you realize you blew it with crappy hosting. Don’t skimp out on hosting if your planning something big. At minimum - plan to scale and learn how to implement proper caching when necessary.
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3. Do we need pretty urls and will we use subdomains?
If you’re starting a site from scratch - pretty urls should be a priority - if you have an existing site, you need to weigh the benefit of the increased usability (and positive “SEO side effects”) against the time it takes to retrofit them with existing systems. Sometimes the cost jusitifes the change - sometimes not. Doing it right from the start is ALWAYS good practice, and it’s a lot easier than trying to fix this issue later (it turns real tricky real quick to retrofit this one).
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4. What is our website’s business model and how are we unique?
If you haven’t asked yourself this yet - you better hope you have a whole lot of visitors and sell before the web 2.0 bubble bursts. Just because myspace didn’t need one, doesn’t mean you’ll get away with just having a good idea, and a lot of eyeballs. Even if you have an AWESOME idea - you should develop ideas for an advertising or subscription revenue model or some fundamentals of it.
Don’t get sucked into being the web world’s equivalent of a hypebeast.
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5. Who is our target demographic and what will they search for?
Think BEYOND SEO - even if you don’t believe in it - Planning for the search in your user’s mind can save you from retrofitting for it later. Be one with your user. Unleash your inner customer Zen state of being. How would YOU search? How would your mother search? How would your grandmother search?
I currently have a client whose target market are mainly alpha computer geeks. I’m hoping we can make the website one that Nick Burns would love. Know whom you are writing too, their personality type, and how they read and learn.
"If your target audience isn’t listening, it’s not their fault, it’s yours." - Seth Godin
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6. What will the information architecture be like? What are the important top level keywords?
There needs to be balance between information architecture for usability and keyword information architecture for findability (SEO). IA is definitely one of the most underappreciated aspects of good search optimization as well as usability.
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7.Which platform should we use?
Your platform is going to be heavily dependant upon your staff and their strengths. You need to decide early on if you’re going to be a windows shop or an open source bunch of commies. I’m a LAMP fan myself, but I’ve always heard great things about MS SQL server for powering large DB’s. With Windows, you’ll probably get better support, with open source you’ll get less licensing fees. There are many other considerations including security, scalability, reliability, labor costs, add on licensing fees, availability of add ons, and much more.
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8. How do we create a professional design?
There’s no underestimating the power of a strong design. Design is one of the very strong indicators of trust and credibility in most users minds. It’s true that ugly sells - but sexy sells better. Don’t move backwards - create a CSS driven site that can be redesigned easily in a year, and separate the site form and function.
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9. How do we prove high credibility?
You need to maintain your credibility. With ANY business or organization you are only as good as your word. Prove your credibility and make it apparent - don’t make your users wonder about it.
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10. What ideas can we use for linkbait?
Why beg for links when you can convince people to give them to you naturally? Learn how to attract people’s attention and their link love.
Search Rankings = Content * Links * Time
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11. If we can’t create great bait, how do we buy, barter, and beg for links?
Sometimes you just have to know the value of a link and how to ask for it. Even if you’re the best in your business, you should still spend SOME time asking for links. Only arrogant wankers think they are are too good to ask for links. Be prepared to offer something of value in return. As Mike Grehan has said, "asking for a link is like asking to do business".
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12. Where else can we advertise?
Pay-per-click, banner ads, print, radio, flyers, direct mail, television, billboards and even bathroom stalls are all options. I like stuff I can track for improving later. Okay, I’ll admit I suck at traditional media - but when I need help in the area, I can certainly find the right places to look. I am certainly biased to online media because of the ROI I know it can demonstrate. There is still a multitude of opportunity with other traditional advertising - just be SURE to leverage your online presence (include and plug your url as well as special tracking urls like redirected domains) when doing your more traditional advertising.
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13.What will we use for tracking and analysis?
Which stats package is right for you? The one that tracks the needs of you and your customers and most cheaply and easily integrates to the rest of the web systems you’ve put in place. If you’re not doing tracking and analysis of your users with something more than free software - your company deserves to go out of business because of your hungry new upstart competitor.
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14. What will help increase conversions and/or actions and how can we provide users incentives to stay or return?
The beauty of online marketing is that you can track - and when you’re tracking, it’s all about the actions. You should strive to reduce your CPA (cost per action) through thorough testing and tracking to better understand your user’s behavior. Do you really think Google bought Urchin because of their intense desire to help webmasters by giving it away free?? It’s all about conversion.
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15. How will we keep administration simple for the entire staff to use? Your web presence will be much more powerful if you allow everyone in the company to share their expertise. Don’t force everyone to learn HTML - make it easy for them to contribute to the site without burdening others. You could create an overpriced custom CMS that will become nightmare legacy code when the programmer storms out in a fit of rage due to upper management’s ignorance - or you could find something friendly and open source that’s been around a while, and lots of people know about.
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16. How can we manage our reputation?
Do a search for your company name. Do a search for your key employee names. Do you really want someone else ranking there? If no, it’s time to start getting
proactive.
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17. How do we make the site “cluetrain friendly” and build a strong community environment?
In case you haven’t realized, “content is king” is cliche for a reason. Are YOU really gonna create ALL the content it takes? Is you’re company so full of itself that you only participate in monologues instead of dialogues?
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18. How do we scale and specialize for effective use of time?
The CEO should not be answering customer service e-mails. The strategist should not be doing link requests. The CTO should not be writing copy. It’s good to have cross discipline experience, but there is something to be said for sticking with specialized expertise. There are a lot of considerations that go into a website as you can see - If you specialize and organize your team you will get much better results. As the saying goes, "a cup of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Plan for your growth, and how time and resources will be allocated to scale properly.
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Summary - (Ask yourself, your CEO, or your SEO and get back to work)
I got through the whole list with nearly no specific mention of SEO - that’s because SEO IS all these things - sure we could nitpick titles and internal anchor text, and there is certainly some value in that. There’s even more value in balancing the things mentioned above that impact search, and leaving the nitpicking to those who spend all their time in forums, and doing no actual work. I don’t care about the diminishing effectiveness of reciprocal links and h1’s - I care if our product is selling.
SEO is understanding the fundamentals of strong web presence principles, and being able to implement them within the constraints of a given project. SEO is not meta tags and keyword stuffing. You won’t get the right answers and results until you ask the right questions.
This is my list - What’s Yours?
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The ASIDIC conference was a completely new experience for me. It gave me a chance to get outside my comfort zone in the world of search and try to soak up some of the cutting edge information in an entirely new field. The conference gave off a bit of the same vibe that the music industry must have felt shortly after the reign of Napster began. MP3’s were “good enough”, and so is Google in many instances. I’m sure premium content will make out just fine, but the shifts in distribution and consumption within the marketplace has caused a chasm that many will fall into. It will also create a lot of opportunity, as folks in the music industry have established with the increase of music consumption. The experience of focusing on distribution models was quite eye opening, and inspired many ideas that will definitely come in handy for future ventures.
As a brief aside - If I’ve misquoted anyone in the upcoming posts of notes - please let me know, and I will make changes - Also feel free to point me in the direction of any presentations, notes, or other pertinent information that I may have missed in my mess of links - this was my first attempt at blogging a conference, and I have rekindled respect for Barry, Chris, Ben, Lee, Mike and the rest of the SEO/SEM bloggers that cover conferences. This was TOUGH - and I’m two weeks late on posting!
I have a whole new appreciation for those just getting into the world of search that are attending their first conference and trying to understand the acronyms and vernacular that is a part of our world. I was completely overwhelmed trying to disseminate the informational nuances of the world of ASIDIC. I already posted my question of “what is federated searchâ€, after being surprised that I was so unaware of this terminology. Being an information junkie, I was overwhelmed with a tidal wave of new terminology, jargon, and ideas that overcame me from being exposed to a new type of thought process.
The ASIDIC conference was opened by program chair and local host, Frank Bilotto with his comments on “The Future is Now … or Neverâ€. I had met Frank returning from SES in San Jose, and we had an engaging conversation on the world of premium content publishers, and how they were just not yet adapting to new search technology because of their fairly rigid views. While I do often encounter resistance to the opportunities that search affords its advocates, I don’t spend nearly as much time trying to preach to the unconverted. I do, however, enjoy try to understand the views and beliefs that these fears stem from.
I realized about halfway through the first day that I had been, in fact, recruited to be an instigator of discussion in the world of ASIDIC after Frank realized just how passionate I was about search and the opportunities that the new media offers businesses that embrace it (Frank did not deny this fact when I confronted him on it). Now anyone that knows me can tell you that I am probably one of the least combative people you will ever come across, and these days I rarely find incentive in extolling the virtues of search engine optimization since I am already currently more than overwhelmed with work as a one man operation. I think Frank knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist this debate, however, and that my non-sales pitch approach would probably be a good fit.
When I saw the insane amount of opportunity available to some of these publishers that they were in some cases completely overlooking it seemed the equivalent of a famished man right around the corner from a free all you can eat super buffet, not willing to get up and see what’s around the corner while complaining about everyone else eating so well. These companies are hardly famished, but the lack of experimentation among a group of such intelligent people was pretty astounding to me. I think part of the resistence to change, is that many of these company’s have had google’s technology decades before google did. The technology doesn’t inspire them, and they are still grasping just how important the marketing and critical mass is to the major search engines success (due highly in part to their differentiation in distribution model).
As Elisabeth and I sat and ran the “site commands†on several of the sites of these large companies we were shocked by these missed opportunities. I got the impression that many of the folks were so averse to the perceived “black magic†of search optimization that they had completely overlooked fundamentals of indexing and the unique opportunities that were available to them by simply making a larger portion of their content accessible to the major engines. It was very frustrating to see this vast availability of opportunity being so seriously underutilized.
Throughout the conference, I kept coming back to the level of forward thinking displayed by one company from the premium content publishing world that HAD embraced the field of search engine marketing, ThomasNet. Paul Gerbino, a VP from Thomas publishing spent a bit of time discussing how his company had embraced the web with Frank Bilotto. The company has made an amazing shift from print to electronic, that must have been an extremely difficult sell for the advocates of change.
It seemed to me that there are a few key questions to be answered by the large publishers as the demand to threats from lower overhead digital media providers becomes stronger. Most critical among these will be: Where should the registration and subscription “walls†be placed? (certainly much lower than they are now in my mind), How will we transition those digital emigrants, and how long do we leave our legacy systems in place? What are the actual threats that the new medium creates, and how do we overcome them? What opportunities for new revenue models does this new medium provide? How can we effectively track information about our users? How can we better determine what our users want? How do we more effectively monetize those needs?
Overall, it was fascinating for me to see how this industry was structured. It took me outside my comfort zone and gave me the ability to think from a brand new perspective – mainly from those most affected by the changes associated with search technology. I feel like I just got a brief glimpse into another world, but it is certainly something I will continue to research. Content may be king – but accessibility to that content and finding new models for the monetization of information will be the only things that keep it from being free by adding a unique new sort of expertise and organizational value. Some content (like how to bandage a wound) needs only to be “good enoughâ€, where other content (how to perform open heart surgery) must be very precise. Expertise, credibility, and organization is what separates “good enough†from premium. The prevalence of “good enough†information has shaken the premium content industry to its core, but also serves to only increase the overall value of expert information and reducing the noise level.
I would like to say a special thanks to everyone whose discussions have provided me with new reading and writing inspiration for quite a long time to come, and offer a huge thank you to all the friendly, brilliant new people that I met, and especially to Frank Bilotto for giving me the opportunity to experience the ASIDIC world. It was a very pleasurable experience that I won’t forget for quite a while to come. To find out more information about attending an ASIDIC conference or becoming an ASIDIC member – you can visit their website at www.asidic.org
**Editor Notes
Karl Ribas is currently the Project Manager over at All Web Promotion, and on the side runs his own search engine marketing Blog and consultant website. I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with Karl back and forth online, and finally got to meet him (along with CK aka Kid Disco) at SES in San Jose a few weeks ago. Karl has put together a nice list of how to’s for finding a good SEO consultant.
I think this is definitely a topic worth revisiting. I have discussed it in the past with, hiring and seo company or consultant, and 10 things to ask your seo company. One thing to remember that came from those discussions is that individual consultants are often busy and they may have some questions for you as well, and are use to “tire kickers” and may be reluctant to give out too much information unless the prospect was referred through a trusted associate.
by: Karl Ribas
In my experience and opinion most website owners’ priority is to get top search engine positioning for their selected search terms; and who can blame them?! They, as many, understand the importance and the benefits in having a highly ranked website. However, what’s not so clear, is that there are many dangers that exist when practicing with the wrong SEO techniques and strategies.
Regardless of one’s opinion on “White-Hat†versus “Black-Hat†SEO, it can be said that some techniques and strategies fit a project, while others simply do not. Understanding the differences and when to use them is what being an SEO is all about. Subsequently, this is why so many Internet companies choose to work with SEOs.
Think of a website optimizer as a veteran carpenter or plumber. Similar to the two handymen, a great SEO has their own tools, experience, education, and industry know-how needed for each and every project. When given a project, a great SEO must decide on which tools, techniques, and strategies are the most appropriate for the task at hand. In addition, and even more important, a great SEO must also decipher which of the tools, techniques, and strategies they should avoid using for fear of jeopardizing long term success.
With this being said, the main question is how exactly does a website owner choose the right SEO company or consultant, and how will they know that the strategies and techniques that are chosen are safe and most appropriate for a long-term campaign? The following tips are very beneficial to those looking to hire an SEO, and are helpful in separating one type of SEO from another.
Request and Review References – It is perfectly appropriate for companies, those looking to hire an SEO Firm or consultant, to request references before agreeing to move forward in the early stages of an SEO campaign. References will most likely highlight the SEO’s success rate, work ethic, customer service efforts, strategies and techniques, and many other traits needed to gain a better understanding of an SEO. If an SEO’s current and past clients won’t vouch for the company… who can?
“Google†(Search) the SEO Company – Searching an SEO’s name and URL can provide several types of information about the company that might otherwise be unknown.
When searching an SEO, weave through the top few listings, assuming that they belong to the actual company, and focus on those that appear on the second half of the first page all the way through the third. Typically, this is where comments, reviews, press releases, articles, affiliations, and so many other informative resources regarding the company can be found. This is great because it aids in understanding how others, both inside and out, interact with and perceive the SEO Company or consultant.
Request and Search Their Keywords – This may seem to be seen an awkward request, however, the benefits in researching are insightful and rewarding.
For your information, simply by searching the company’s key search-terms and viewing how well they rank will be a direct indicator as to how your company will be ranked / handled. It is important to understand that not all great SEO’s are going to rank high for terms such as “Search Engine Optimization†or “SEO Consultantâ€â€¦ simply because there are too many SEO companies and only 10 first-page positions. However, focus on how well the SEO ranks for the keywords they were brave enough to provide and see first hand just how good the SEO is at SEO.
Talk With More Than One Representative – Obviously this tip is only beneficial when feeling out SEO companies and not one-man operations, but the idea itself is simple and informational. It is natural for an SEO Company to have all potential clients funneled through a sales-department or people who are capable of talking-up their services. It is very rare that a company will communicate directly to the SEO team responsible for optimizing their website.
To avoid the corporate runaround associated with speaking to a company’s sales-team, simply request a second phone call, but this time request one with a member of their SEO team. An SEO will typically provide more realistic answers to questions regarding strategies and techniques as well as those related to success rates and overall expectations.
Request and Review Affiliates – You can verify that a SEO is indeed a great SEO by reviewing those organizations that they associate themselves with. Questions to ask yourself are: Is the SEO Company associated with industry organizations such as SEMPO or SMA-NA? Does the company use 3rd party service providers, and if so are they highly reputable? These are appropriate questions you should be asking before hiring an SEO company or consultant.
Also ask yourself the question, if an SEO Company or consultant is unable to provide adequate industry-related affiliates, what does that suggest about their involvement in the Search Engine Optimization industry?
In conclusion, deciding on which SEO Company or consultant to move forward with is a very difficult task. Companies should base their decision on whether or not they believe an SEO possess the necessary resources and understanding to rank a website, as well as a better understanding of how to keep a website listed within a search engine’s index and off of their banned list.
Every SEO company and consultant will naturally vary in their views and opinions about search engine optimization, as well as which techniques and strategies are best. Utilizing the five tips highlighted above, a company should have little trouble deciphering through their list of possible SEOs, and finding one that best compliments the ideas and goals of the specific project at hand.
Bio Information:
Karl Ribas is the Project Manager at All Web Promotion, and on the side runs his own search engine marketing Blog and consultant website. He has been designing websites since 2001, and began his involvement with search engine marketing in September of 2003. As both, Project Manager at All Web Promotion and owner of his own website, Karl provides up-to-date, valuable, and effect Search Engine Marketing and design services to a wide range of small to medium sized online businesses.
1. Highly intelligent PPC automation tools and arbitrageurs
2. Age factors impacting trust score
3. Ad agencies catching on to SEO
4. User data validation for trust score
5. Saavy affiliates with established sites that don’t like competition
6. SE’s shifting of the content revenue model
7. Diminishing conversion rates for link requests
8. Just like the “real world” $$$$$$ will again = trust
9. Ad agencies playing ball with SEO’s
10. The day Aaron retires from building free tools
11. Leveling of information between buyers and sellers
**Added Matt - has a very nice list of rebuttals - that there is increasing opportunities for small businesses.
I thought it was worth mentioning that I’ve recently “officially” decided to make a more long-term committment to doing independent consulting work. For now, I’ll be focusing mainly on doing site audits and developing strategies for people looking to do their own SEM work, or looking to bring a team of search engine marketers in-house.
Fortunately, so far, I’ve been too busy to take time to stop and actually write up descriptions of these type services, but I’ll definitely be trying to do that in the future (sometime). Site audits include diagnosis and remedies for on-page SEO, keyword research, off-page SEO, community networking opportunities, blog marketing, PPC, affiliate marketing, or any other applicable marketing disciplines for bringing them together for better results. Site audits are generally a one-time service with some level of follow up. Consulting and training services will focus on very similar type of information, with more extensive follow up.
If you think your company might be a good fit for training or consulting, feel free to drop me a line, or look me up at SES, and we can discuss in more detail if I’d be the right fit for your situation.
SEO/ Internet Marketing Training
